Drew Princess plucked the thermometer from the patient's mouth. Maja gave her a pretty smile as the doctor declared, "temperature's fine. Good, Maja. Very good." Reaching out, Drew hugged the madwoman. She was intensely aware of all the things that Finn felt when he came here. Maja was a witch. She was an immortal being who might well live for eternity. As a child. She hoped Finn's words were true. She hoped Theo rotted in hell for eternity. Kissing Maja's cheek, the doctor turned and put the thermometer into its case. "Will Finn call," Maja asked? "I'm sure he will, honey," said Drew.
Taking up her bag, Drew gave her patient another hug before heading out. She'd be calling Finn herself to make sure that phone-call came. Leaving Maja behind, she headed off to the nursery. As she passed the cells, Blargetha opined, "she'd have peeled your skull like an orange. You're a fool for supporting that man's stupid infatuation!" "I'm a doctor," Drew replied. "I treat the sick. Even when they've handed over their own sister to be gang-raped..." She left a chagrined princess staring at her back.
Hurletta had been militating for Blargetha to be handed over. She'd come by once to dispense threats, offering to take only a couple of hours to kill her sister. Finn had forced 'Letta to leave, but afterwards Blargetha had come to believe her days were numbered. Finn the Human had a soft spot for 'Letta. If she exerted herself–especially now–Blargetha would find her head on the chopping block. It felt a lot like she was just hanging out, waiting on the end. She wasn't irrevocably mad. There was no mitigating circumstance that would protect her from her sister's wrath.
As the terrified woman paced, a strange sound came to her ear. Her eyes scanned the room not once but twice, and she glanced past the air-vent twice before spotting the object on the far side. When she finally noticed, she practically threw herself on her knees in front of the grating. A phone. Someone had dropped a phone into her air vent! Now the slime-woman glanced over her shoulder to be sure no-one was watching. Then she reached out, thinning out her arm as she did so.
This was the tricky part. Her new form was too big. More to the point, the changes that had lent her the ability to use weapons and carry heavy objects had greatly limited her ability to mold herself to fit confined spaces. She loved what she'd gained, but it didn't stop her from missing the one thing that would have let her escape this place. It took a while. Whoever had dropped her the phone either had bad aim or didn't quite know her limitations, and Blargetha wasn't thrilled about getting electrocuted again. Finally, she got her fingers on the phone and managed to reel it in, carefully sliding it through the grating.
As soon as she flicked it open, a message came up. Your sister has condemned you. It was all that Blargetha feared. A shiver of terror went through her. A second message popped up, stating, you were tried in absentia and sentenced to death in the rain. Blargetha shuddered in terror. She'd had thoughts that in her new form the rain couldn't hurt her anymore, but she'd never been fool enough to try it. No slime-person ever let rain touch them, lest they be dissolved and washed away. It was a powerfully painful way to leave Ooo. Taking a chance, the slime-woman texted her benefactor, when? She had to know, if for no other reason than to prepare herself, maybe even to try and sell herself dearly before 'Letta's thugs could lay hands on her.
There was a pause, and, for a moment, she feared her benefactor had broken the connection. Finally the response came back, Finn the Human has left the palace and gone abroad. He has the final decision. That sent shivers through her. Finn wasn't a friend of hers, and honestly she felt as though he would kill her himself if 'Letta asked it. She'd tried throwing herself at him, offering herself in the hope that if she pleased him, he would spare her life. He'd all but laughed in her face. Despair filled her heart, and she texted, is there NOTHING I can do? The answer was a little more immediate this time. Have patience. Help is coming.
The slime woman felt a momentary thrill. Help. She finally had someone who would help her. She wanted more than anything to leave this place as something more than a corpse. Her eyes flicked to the door of the cell and then back to the illicit phone. This had become her life-line. It was the only hope of keeping her head. Part of her wanted to hold onto the thing with all her might. At the same time, she knew the minute somebody else saw the phone, it would be taken. They might even start a search to figure out how she'd gotten it. Reluctantly, Blargetha returned the phone to its place on the far side of the grating, carefully wrapping it in a string to make it easier to retrieve. She'd charge it later, when everyone had gone down to sleep.
On the far side of the world, Finn the King sat down with Nadia's radio-rig, thinking of Maja. They'd made it to shore of course. Sheila had been as good as her word, depositing he and Billy in the chief port in the east without a bobble. He had miles to go to reach the town that was suffering from banditry though. And he'd made a promise. He'd promised Maja that he'd call. That was important to him. She'd kept her word and given him her all. In spite of all the times that people had betrayed her over the centuries of her long life, she'd taken his hand. And what did she get? Just like always, a princess betrayed her. Granted, Ingrid had Death himself egging her on to do in Maja, but the result was the same. Maja had gotten screwed on the deal, and Finn was angry about that.
"Dad," Billy burbled. Finn looked up at him. "I know this means a lot to you," said the younger man. "It's my word," Finn rumbled. "I know, dad," said Billy. Smiling, as he sat down beside his father, Billy said, "ready to let me be on my own with this?" Finn flushed to his hair. He could keep his promise if he let his son go into this thing by himself. In soothing tones, Billy said, "I can handle this for a little while, pop. I'm good enough to manage this on my own. Make the call. Do what you need to do..." "Ok, son," said Finn.
Billy hefted his bag and headed on down the dock. At the far end, Finn could see him hailing a taxi. "Not going," asked Sheila? Finn told her, "got a call to make." Setting off down the dock, he sent the little radio-puck floating before him. As he settled the headset on, he told his radio, "call Maja." He neither glanced back nor cared really what Sheila thought of that. He had a promise to keep.
Billy settled himself in the first taxi to come along, telling the driver, "Fengdu village. I want to get there tonight." "You sure," said the driver? "It's extra, man. Bandits been hitting them guys. I won't be able to get back before nightfall." "Then I'll pay for a room," said Billy. He put a sack of coins on the seat next to him, causing the driver's eyes to go wide. With a grin, the humanoid put the truck in gear and tore out of there.
Billy settled in to wait and think. He and his dad were two peas in a pod–carrying the world. It felt that way sometimes. He had only wanted his happy life with Rags and maybe a couple kids or three. In the early part of his life, he'd never questioned the life his father led, with two wives and three kids between the pair. He'd never felt a need to. That was just the world he grew up in. Later, when he came to realize just how odd it was for a man to be married twice over like that, he'd come to question his father's integrity and even his sanity. Just managing things with JJ was a hard enough row for Billy to hoe. He hadn't understood until lately just how little choice Finn Mertens, the once and former Last-Human, actually had in the matter.
But he was starting to understand. Honestly, he was becoming frighteningly aware of just how little choice his father had. Women throwing themselves at you was bad. Billy had experienced plenty of that in school. He'd had women of all ages, from school-girls four grades behind him to teachers throwing themselves at him. And the problem had only gotten worse when he'd become a man, because the women had started to come at him fast and furious. And some of those women wore crowns.
Finn the Human had become adept at ducking women with Royal Blood. Unbeknownst to Billy, he'd been fucking doing it all his life. He'd ducked Bonnie. And he'd ducked Nadia. And he'd put down Breakfast on occasions too numerous to mention. Fucking Toast had thrown herself at him at fourteen! Any or all of those women could have asked for his head, but somehow Finn managed to keep them not only happy with rejection but eager for more. It was a skill Billy had come to appreciate because he now saw he was going to have to cultivate it himself. If he didn't, either his Royal Wives would cut his little head off or some angry vixen somewhere else in the world would cut his big head off.
As the structures of the port town of Chongqing thinned out and gave way to the countryside, Billy became a fair bit more focused. The village had a sea-wall, forcefields, and defenses against invasion. More to the point, there was a fair amount of strength in numbers. Out here in the countryside, there could be bandits anywhere. And he knew, from listening to Princess Sakura, that the bandits were becoming very bold.
His driver never slowed down, even when Billy might have wanted him to. The humanoid took the turns at frightening speeds, tearing down the road at a breakneck pace, which told his passenger a lot about just how bad things had gotten on the edge of Sakura's kingdom. The bandits were making life pretty hard if you couldn't simply drive from point-A to point-B without trouble. Billy found himself reaching for the case that held his swords and scanning the sides of the road. "Almost there," said the driver. Which, strangely enough, did little to calm the young soldier.
The humanoid came roaring up to the door of the local inn in a cloud of dust, disturbing the chickens that were in the yard. Billy paid him, put a generous tip in his hands, and admonished him to be waiting out front in the morning. In the right now, he grabbed his bags and headed inside, dialing his phone as he went. "Cherry," he called. "Yeah. Bill." On the other end of the line, Cherry Mertens shooed one of her recalcitrant subordinates out of her office. This was personal business and didn't need to involve the local low-lifes.
"Yeah, Bill," said the older woman. "You private," Bill asked? "I am now," Cherry replied. "Something you need?" With a sigh, Bill said, "need a name... I'm in Fengdu now. I need somebody local who knows maybe who some of the players are and why the bandits are suddenly raising so much hell." "I can do that," she replied. "Gimme' a bit, Bill, ok?" "Yeah," he said. "I'll get settled in." Hanging up, he went to the desk. "Need three rooms," he said. "One for me right now... One for my dad when he gets here tomorrow." The innkeep frowned at him and asked, "the third?" "Nothing special," Bill replied. "My driver's gonna' be staying the night..." The innkeep nodded sagely. Nobody with sense would be on the roads tonight. The gates to the town would be closing soon and the forcefield would get turned on until morning.
Knowing that there were few choices in Fengdu right now with the bandits making travel a dicey proposition, the innkeep drove a hard bargain. Knowing that Cherry's men would be siphoning some of that money away, Billy didn't sweat paying it that much. If the innkeep was being a dick, there were bigger dicks waiting in the wings to teach him the error of his ways. Laying coin on the counter, Billy hefted his gear and headed upstairs to his room.
Once there, he locked the door, threw himself on the bed, and let the tension of the day drain out of him. His dad was shockingly healthy to say he'd lived with this stress on a constant basis since he was fourteen and just beginning to understand what girls were all about. Billy wasn't sure he could have handled all the drama. Shaking off the worry, he composed a nice message for his sons, shipped it to Rags, and got about putting his stuff away in the room's tiny closet. Then, strapping on his weapons, the big man headed down to the commons to look for something to eat. Halfway down the stairs, Cherry called him back. "Go," he greeted her.
"The name you want's Chow Cheung," she said. "Goes by the name Shrimp Boy because he's kind of a little shit. He's got his fingers in half a dozen different dirty dealings. He's bad news, Bill. Be careful." "I will," he replied. She told him, "he's usually found in the Ghee Kong Social Club just off the main square." "Bold," Billy opined. "He practically owns the town," Cherry replied. "The police chief's in his pocket." "He got any skin in this game," Billy asked? "A little," Cherry replied. "He's likely to be playing both sides. He doesn't want the town smashed, but he doesn't mind the cut he gets from holding it hostage either." Nodding to himself, Billy said, "how rough can I get with him?" "I don't have the power in the East that I have here, Bill," she reminded him. "Anything you and your father do can open a rift that I can't close." "I'll walk small, then," he said. "Be careful," she admonished him. "We need you." She hung up then. Billy stuffed his phone in his pocket and headed out to the street. The sun was sinking fast towards the horizon, and the bandits would soon be on the prowl.
The Ghee Kong Social Club was jumping tonight. It was, in fact, the one place in the town that seemed completely unafraid to be open, in spite of the dangers lurking outside of town. In a world that was hungry and teetering on the brink of war, it seemed altogether mad that these people could be running a raucous public house like this. Of course it helped that Shrimp Boy was in cahoots with the bandits wrecking the countryside.
Striding up to the door, the young man gave the bouncer a smile. "New in town," he said. "Just off a ship from the west. Maybe looking for work..." The bouncer looked him up and down. "Got muscle, kid," said he. Billy snapped his fingers in front of the bouncer's eyes, conjuring a tiny blade of glacial ice. He balanced the blade there for a moment before hurling it into one of the porch's supports. "Wizard," rumbled the gangster. Billy smiled. "Go on in," said the thug. "Boss hold's court at nine." Thanking the man, he handed over a tip, then went strolling in.
The place was almost painfully loud, as if making up for the eerie silence outside in the rest of the town. On the stage at the center of the club, a trio of young women danced and gyrated for the amusement of the locals. Billy found himself giving them the eye and thinking of his dad's old flame. The three were petite and thin like Sakura. Really, they fit the body-type that he sort of was used to from his days with JJ. He was honestly a little hungry after months of having all three wives pregnant. Shaking that off, he stood there a moment, scanning the scene, finally identifying Shrimp Boy from his stepmother's description.
With Cherry's warnings fresh in his mind, the young man turned and headed over to the bar. Settling in to wait, he ordered some of the local flavor while he watched the floor show. If things around here went the way they usually did, he would get some attention in short order. Wizards weren't so common that even powerful men could ignore them. Keeping one eye on the 'court' over in the far corner, the young soldier watched the girls on the stage as they danced and gyrated. His mind worked on ways to open the dialogue without starting a fight that they couldn't, collectively, afford. It was another lesson from his father. Running in and blasting everything in sight could only get you so far.
As he stood ogling the pretty young things on the stage, the door burst inwards. Every face there glanced up to see the bouncer slumped beside the door with drool oozing from his lips. At the same time she walked in. Tall and stacked, she came with a plump bosom, curvy hips, and long, lean legs that went from her ass all the way to the ground. She wore a blue jacket over hip-hugging white slacks and white heels that click-clacked as she crossed the floor. Her thin lips were daubed with lipstick in a vibrant red like hearts-blood. And she wouldn't have looked out of place in Betty's world but for two things. One, she had pointed ears atop her head, poking out of her reddish-orange hair, and nine bushy red-orange tails jutted out from her elegantly swaying behind.
Billy was smitten. He thought every man there was watching as the beautiful stranger strode up to the chief gangster's impromptu 'court'. Billy watched, transfixed, as she stopped, drew the thin, wire-frame glasses from her face and began to polish them with the hem of her jacket. "Imai," Shrimp Boy greeted her. "Cheung Chow-Kwok," the tall woman replied. "Your associates are trespassing. Again." "Really," the gangster said, a sinister smile lighting his face.
Rolling her eyes, the stranger said, "we've had this conversation before, Chow. You leave the shrine and its village alone. I stay out of your hair. Is that request really so hard to understand? Or do you enjoy having to hire new henchmen?" "I'm afraid I don't understand," said the gangster. "Perhaps you could explain?" Reaching into a pocket, the stranger drew out a small flask and set it on the table. "If you're going to try and exorcise me, you might actually try finding someone who understands the old religious texts instead of idiots like this one," rumbled the tall woman.
Chow's face froze, and Billy thought that the stranger's words were true. Question was, who was she? "I don't care what you do, Chow," said the strange woman. "Burn this town to the ground, if you like. Rape half the countryside. Shiyan-village is under my protection. Good-evening." Recovering, the gangster said, "surely you understand, Miss Imai... I am but one man... There are powerful forces at play here, and people are hungry. Shiyan-village has grown an excellent crop... Your... friends are a target..." "They aren't my friends, Chow," growled the woman, her ears taking on the cant of an angry wolf. "Of course, of course," Chow said. "Nonetheless, I can't be responsible for every gangster. My power in this land has limits."
Calling out to the bartender, he said, "Hong, please bring Miss Imai a drink... Something... potent." The strange woman stared at the gangster a long few moments. Strangely, when the gangster's henchman brought a glass of some strange, midnight-black beverage, the newcomer allowed herself to be led away. Moving across the room to a corner table, she sat herself and, momentarily turned to glowering into her drink and ignoring the other people in the bar as if they weren't there.
Billy watched her as she slowly worked her way through that drink. From time to time, she would glance out the window and mutter curses before returning to her drink. She was a fidgety creature, her hands always seeming to be in motion, and those bushy tails seeming to twitch and writhe from time to time. Finally, when she had drunk the contents of the glass, she rose, and, with no further word, strode out the door just as she'd come in. Billy knew better than to rush to the door to see what happened next. That was a good way to get a spell thrown at you. More to the point, one of the thugs at Shrimp Boy's table was coming his way.
Pretending to be interested in the terrified dancers, Billy feigned surprise when the gangster stopped in front of him. "Boss wants to see you," he said. "Oh," said Billy. "Ok." Setting down his drink, he followed the thug across the room to Shrimp Boy's table. "Good evening, Mr. Cheung," he greeted the gangster. "You're not from here," the gangster remarked. "Nope," Billy replied. "Come east. Western kingdoms are a mess right now. Wanted a change." "That so," rumbled the gangster? Billy shrugged. "And what do you look for here," he asked? "Maybe a job," Billy replied. "Who was the girl?" "A little problem I have," Chow replied with a smile. "My man here tells me you're a wizard..." "Might be," Billy replied. His eyes were on the flask that still sat on the table. The bottle was filled with a strange, reddish mist, and he'd just seen a tortured face in that mist.
Taking the flask, the gangster tossed it into a nearby trash-can. Said he, "I can use a man of... ability. Tell me, are you any good at what you do?" Billy merely smiled. He smiled as the gangster talked. Meanwhile, he slowly dropped the temperature almost imperceptibly. Frost grew on the walls and ceiling, and it was only when it reached the threshold that caused shivering that anyone noticed. Stopping in mid-sentence, Shrimp-Boy glanced around him, finding the ceiling rimed in ice and stared. Then, turning back to Billy, he said, "I see..." After a pause to think about this development, he said, "you're hired." "Alright, boss," said Billy. "What am I doing?" With a sinister smile, the gangster said, "eager, eh?" "Want to get paid," Billy replied. "Passage to the east is expensive."
Nodding, the gangster got down to brass tacks. Leaning forward, he said, "the woman. I want you to kill her. She hails from a village twenty miles to the northeast. I need the village's defenses down. Some... associates of mine have business there." "Powers," Billy asked? "She's a witch," said one of the gangster's henchmen. Nodding, Billy said, "ok. I'll take care of it." Heading back across the room, the young man finished his drink before heading out. As he made his way through the streets of Fengdu, he thought about how he was going to approach this.
The woman was a potential ally. Her appearance was anomalous to the area, suggesting that 'Imai' hailed from the time before the bombs, meaning she might be as powerful as Baba Yaga. She would be very powerful–perhaps more powerful than he was–but more on point, given how cunning Talia was, Imai would be a very cunning opponent if he fucked up and misstepped. The wildcard here was a simple question. What did Shrimp-Boy and his friends want with Imai's village? Billy had his ideas, but he wanted to be sure.
Returning to his hotel, the young man went up to his room, fired off a couple of quick messages to the girls, and then got in bed. In spite of being a bit wound up by the events of the day, he was quickly asleep, sinking down so far that he was barely aware of his surroundings. It was moments like this that the Tiara tempted him. It tempted him with suggestions of freezing the north as a present for Ragnhild. It suggested transposing the power of the other Crown from his mother to Abeiuwa or Noemi so that they could rule the world in eternal ice. Billy typically let the entity that cohabited his body posture. Tonight he told it off because he really wanted some rest.
Rising with the dawn, the young man washed and headed downstairs. Leaving a message for his dad at the desk, he sent the bellhop up to kick his driver out of bed. And then he waited a bit. Messages came back from the girls, and he skimmed through them while waiting. Noemi had some names to try out on him and an ultrasound from Drew to share. The tender words gave him hope that she was settling into this strange joint life. They collectively needed her to do her part. Fabiana, he typed. He liked the sound of that. As he was hitting send, his driver appeared.
"Shiyan-village," he said. The driver frowned. He'd been expecting to be tooling around here for the day or maybe heading back to the port. Billy said, "double pay if we don't get back here before dark." That brightened the driver's mood immeasurably. Gathering up his gear and his passenger's, the older man rushed out to the car. Billy was a little slower in following.
The drive was peaceful, and the cabby told him a little bit about the history of the area. Shiyan-village was one of the few places to survive the Mushroom Bombs unscathed. Local legends told that an ancient guardian spirit had somehow deflected the destructive fire of the bombs away from the village. Of course the scientists from the Truth Kingdom swore it was the village's natural location in a steep-sided valley that was the real answer. The valley's sharp curvature had likely prevented the blast that leveled the other local towns from wiping out the Shiyan village.
Listening to that tale, Billy grimaced. His earlier guesses were true. 'Imai' was this guardian spirit, and she was very, very old. The more he thought about this, the more he thought he might need some advice here. Knowing how paranoid and suspicious Talia was, he feared the reaction of a woman who was being continually harassed by the local gangsters if he just showed up on her doorstep. "Pull over," he commanded. "Huh," the driver burbled? "Over there," said Billy. "Pull over to that pool."
The driver pulled over to the side of a little brook that had meandered through the forest by the roadside. Billy immediately stepped out and strode over to the little stream. Kneeling there, he focused himself and whispered, "ok, Talia. I know you're there. Please reveal yourself." To the shock of the driver, a column of water the height of a man shot into the air, coalescing into the shape of a woman–an irritated woman.
"Played a hunch," Billy said, as he stared up at his father's number one fan. "Figured you'd be bored. Again." The angry figure glanced away, her face softening. "I don't need a lot of your time," he said. "I... have a question. I met someone last night..." "Her name was Katsumi," muttered the ancient witch. "You knew her," Billy pressed. "She was... a contemporary," Baba Yaga replied. "I need to approach her," said Billy, "without getting my balls cut off." The witch spent a few moments muttering curses. Billy reminded her, "you're going to scare off my driver. I still need to get to Shiyan." "Alright," said the witch. "Listen closely."
An hour later, Kristina Katsumi Tsui held her seventh tail up to the light, inspecting the fur with a critical eye. Nope. No grey hairs. She was still immortal. And still shackled to this village. Her birthday was coming soon. Another dreadful birthday alone in this miserable place in the ass-end of nowhere. At least the locals had stopped having 'Imai Day'. Pretending to be happy and delighted to still be protecting them had gotten old about seven-hundred years ago, give or take. Taking up another of her tails, she found herself reflecting on the bitter irony of her life. Her mother had only managed to grow one tail. With no village to befriend, Hitomi Kanzaki had been very mortal as had her mother as had her father before her. The fox-folk had been satisfied with their mortal lives, blending into mortal society and smiling politely as old folk-tales got told about them.
"Why did you fuck this up," she thought? She knew the answer. She'd been fool enough to catch the fever of political activism, and she'd let that rush take her straight off the cliff. And now here she was, an unhappy woman with eternity staring her in the eye. She would be here until somebody somehow managed to wipe Shiyan-village off the map or the sun went out, whichever came first. As she was pondering, for the four-millionth time, how she could get out from under her commitment, a scent of incense came to her sensitive nose.
Frowning, the young/old woman rose. That was odd. She'd broken the locals of the habit of laying out incense. Usually the headman's son just walked up and knocked on her door or left a note in her mailbox. Muttering curses, the tall woman strode across the room to the door and opened it a crack. There in the center of the village's sacred grove knelt a young man. He sat crouched over a brazier filled with ritual incense. WTFO, she thought? She vaguely remembered that handsome young face, but she couldn't place him. Pale hair that looked almost white in the sunlight streaming down. A body like a young god. He pushed all her buttons, reminding her that it was roughly eight-hundred and forty-five years since the last time she'd gotten laid.
With a growl of irritation, she threw the door open and came storming out. He squatted there, face unreadable, as if he were just a supplicant come to ask her a favor. Striding up to him, fists clenched, and a glare of utterest rage on her lovely face, she demanded, "ok, what the fuck, over?" Billy glanced up at the beautiful woman, letting himself see her for the first time. She was dressed in a soft, thigh-length one-piece dress in deep blue. Up close, he got a good look at her yellow-brown peepers, finding them to be as lovely as the rest of her.
"I needed to talk to you," he said. "Talia sends her greetings." The fox-woman knew her jaw was hanging. She knew it, and she was utterly powerless to close it. Talia was dead. Talia was dead a thousand years. Yakutsk had been fried in a nuclear blast. Only a small bomb–just a few Hiroshimas. "How do you know that name," she growled? With a shrug, Billy explained, "I've met her. I asked her about you this morning." Taking out a flask, he said, "I can show you, if you like..." "H-how're you going to show me," growled the witch? Then, "Talia's dead! She's been dead for centuries." "Let me show you," he said. "I don't have a lot of time. Shrimp Boy is trying to hire a wizard to do you in."
Her hackles went up. The hair on the back of her head literally stood on end at the mention of that name. "How do you know that," rumbled the witch? She was two hot seconds from trying to kill him. He could see it in her eyes. He could be like the man in the flask. Calmly, Billy replied, "I let him hire me last night to do the job. Figured if you and he were enemies, you might be a friend... or maybe I might convince you to be one." "You were the man at the bar," she growled. It even sounded like an angry animal. "Yeah," said Bill, "and you were the hot girl who dropped a turd in Shrimp Boy's punchbowl and walked out." Her face flushed, and that seemed to give her pause. Billy took the opportunity to pour the river-water from the flask into the incense bowl. Momentarily, Katsumi found herself staring at an old, familiar face.
"Katsumi," rumbled Baba Yaga. It didn't take long. "So you're a witch too," burbled the fox-woman. The Rusalka shrugged. "I guess birds of a feather do flock together," said Katsumi. "What do you want? If you've really been alive all this time without my knowing, you must want something badly to send this young man..." "Hardly," interrupted Talia. "I keep to myself. This one... His father and I have an... arrangement. We use each other. This seemed important to the world... or what's left of it. He needed an introduction." Turning to Billy, the fox-woman growled, "alright, boy. Talk. Talk before I peel you." "We were asked by the Truth Kingdom to investigate the bandit raids," said Billy. "I went to the bar last night to make contact with Shrimp Boy's organization. When I heard your conversation, I realized that the fight's coming here..."
"You're on your own," said Talia, as she left them. Billy thanked her. Turning to his unwilling host, he said, "maybe we can talk inside?" Gritting her teeth, the fox-woman said, "alright. Come on, then." Rising, Billy put the cap back on the flask as he followed that wig-wagging bottom inside the house. "Stop staring at my ass," she muttered. Billy chuckled, "hard not to notice with the tails..."
Shutting the door behind himself, he said, "you're on an invasion route to Chongqing-city. That's why he wants this town. The road going into the port from his headquarters is heavily patrolled. He's got them focusing all their resources there. The road from your village is little better than a goat-track, and the Truth Kingdom doesn't really look at it as a threat. He can stage his army here and then march them around the defenses while they're distracted further south." Her face was (still) red hot. Smiling, he said, "you're a beautiful woman. Surely you knew that."
"Why do you want to involve yourself," she asked? It was the calmest she'd been so far. "My father owes Princess Sakura a great debt," said Billy. "They've known each other most of their lives, and she came to our aid when a plague of undead threatened to annihilate every living thing in the west. She's calling the marker, so here we are." "Where is your father," she rumbled? "Probably on his way," said Billy. "I left him at the port. He had some things to take care of there. He was going to follow when the sun came up. Likely he's gotten my message, and he'll be on his way here." "Is he bringing an army," asked the witch? With a chuckle, Billy conjured a snowball and said, "we are an army, my Lady."
Wonder who's texting Blargetha?